I'm trying to decide which strut bar to get for my IS500 and I really like the RR Racing one, but it's been discontinued. Does anyone have a lead on any remaining inventory, or one they want to part with?

 

When I last spoke with RR (maybe a couple months ago) they were looking for a new fabricator to make them - did RR tell you the strut braces are discontinued or are you assuming that due to their lack of current availability? If they are officially discontinued, then I need to start shopping around again.

 

Good question. This is the exact response I got when I tried to order the strut bar from them:

"Hope you are doing well. I am contacting you to inform you that unfortunately we do not have this item in stock, and we do not know when they will be available. There was a manufacturing problem, and we did have to discontinue them as of now. Also, we did take it off our website, so I do apologize if for some reason it popped up on your end. We did also process the refund right away; it should hit soon depending on your bank. Let me know if you have any questions and I do apologize for the inconvenience."

 

Hmmm...the word choice in that response is odd and could be taken either way. However, based on my conversation with them I'm going to take it that what they meant to say was "discontinued for now", meaning "not currently available". If we're lucky maybe someone from RR will see this thread, drop in, and post some kind of clarification.

FWIW, the reason they are looking for a new fabricator is because the one they were using was raising its prices with every order, to the point that it was no longer profitable for them to go with that fabricator. The fabricator still has the jigging and would probably do another order, but I know they don't do less than a certain number per run. I forget the exact number, but I'm guessing we'd need a group ready to pay more than the price listed on the web page (the page still exists, the link is just not published any longer) in addition to meeting that minimum order number. I'm not rich, but I'd pay another $50 or so to get the RR unit rather than settling for any of the others I've seen available.

If I can make the time today or next week, I'll call RR and try to get some specific numbers, then post them here.

 

Toms Racing is our go to.

-Josh

 

After writing the following I realized it sounded like I was dunking pretty hard on TOMS. That's not my intention, but I'm not sure how else to say what I wanted to say. I hope everyone who reads this will understand that I don't hate TOMS, but I do look at their parts with a critical, possibly even suspicious, eye based on my only experience with a TOMS labeled part...

I really like the look of the TOMS brace - in fact, I think it's the best-looking brace available for the IS 500 (that I've seen so far), but I'm not convinced that it's very effective considering its geometry - the shape and thickness don't look like they really provide much lateral support. I'd really need to check one out before it's mounted and see if it's more rigid than it appears. I'm also not a fan of the stress it appears it put on the AVS harness - at least the driver's side one (from the pictures I've seen here on ClubLexus). FWIW, I purchased a TOMS carbon fiber intake tube several months back and a very experienced mechanic, who's been in the performance corner of the industry for many years (and has a successful shop where I live in SoCal), inspected it and said it was not carbon fiber but simply fiber glass with a thin carbon fiber layer on the outside. I have no reason to doubt him so, based on what that part cost, I'm wary of the value of TOMS parts at this point. I admit he could be wrong, or I could have received a counterfeit part - but either of those seems somewhat unlikely to me considering his reputation (and experience) and the reputation of the source I purchased it from. I'm not saying TOMS parts don't "work" and I'm not trying to impugn their reputation, but I'm cautious of spending the premium the TOMS name commands without knowing for sure that I'm going to get the level of value I expect in relation to the price charged - something I don't feel I got with the intake tube.

 

i have the blitz one

 

looks like a red cusco...haha

 

Lil cheaper and matches my infared nicely